There was a time when EHC Arosa was the top team in Swiss ice hockey. Between 1951 and 1957, the team from Graubünden won the Swiss championship seven times in a row. Two more titles were added in 1980 and 1982. This puts Arosa in third place with nine championship trophies behind the HCD (31 titles) and the SCB (15).
In 2017, EHC Arosa still exudes some of the glow of its successful past, but in sporting terms the club has disappeared from the national stage. Its opponents in the Regio League are no longer SC Bern, HC Davos or Lugano, but SC Weinfelden, EHC Uzwil or EHC Wetzikon.
For three days at the end of the year, however, a touch of top field hockey returns to Schanfigg. As part of the "Arosa Ice Classic", the ZSC Lions will be visiting the small mountain village for a friendly game on December 30. Duels against Zurich SC, as the current ZSC Lions were known until the merger in 1997, were a classic of Swiss field hockey until the voluntary relegation of the Arosa team from the National League A in 1987.
The traditional duel between Arosa and ZSC began on November 18, 1950, when Zurich's Hallenstadion was inaugurated as Switzerland's first indoor ice rink. But the EHC from the Grisons mountains spoiled the party for the Zurich team, snatching points from the ZSC in a 5:5 draw.
Now, 67 years later, the Lions have the opportunity for revenge. They are doing so with retro jerseys, in keeping with the organizers' motto: "Back to the origins of ice hockey". To top it all off, the game will not be played in the Arosa ice rink, but on the frozen Obersee, weather conditions permitting. And: the Zurich stars will make the journey in an old Pullman coach of the Rhaetian Railway.
For all field hockey romantics, the highlight of 2017 comes at the very end.
AROSA ICE CLASSIC
Sat, December 30, 2017, Arosa natural ice rink
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